


The Show

by cats_pajamies



Category: Sanders Sides, Thomas Sanders
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Cheating, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-26
Updated: 2017-06-26
Packaged: 2018-11-19 06:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11307852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cats_pajamies/pseuds/cats_pajamies
Summary: Ann and Roman are happy or at least they keep telling themselves that, but when Roman starts a new show, Ann meets Patton and wonders if he's really happy with Roman.





	The Show

They were happy where they were, with a secret relationship and no promises for tomorrow. Well, actually only Roman was happy with it, he was the one who made the first move and the one who brought up keeping it a secret. Ann was ok with it most of the time, but sometimes he wasn't and those were the times when he thought Roman was embarrassed of him. 

"What kind of amazing all-American boy would want to be with a stereotypical punk?" Ann thought as he laid next to Roman tracing patterns onto his back. "He could do so much better than me, so why is he here? Maybe he's just keeping this a secret so he can leave whenever he wants and it'd be a clean break because he wouldn't have to tell anyone," He knew Roman wouldn't do that, but still, the fear lingered, and those awful thoughts sang him to sleep.

"Hey, do you want to come to practice and help me run lines?" Roman asked the next morning when he got out of the shower.

Ann looked up, slightly disappointed to see that Roman was already fully clothed. "Sure, just give me a minute," He answered as he started to put in his piercings.

Roman looked at his phone and said, "Do you really have to put in all your piercings? I love them, but they take awhile and I'm already running late," in an impatient tone.

Ann sighed as he put his piercings away and replied, "Ok, but I'm putting in the tongue," sticking his tongue out

Roman smiled and kissed Ann before responding, "Good, that one's my favorite," with a wink.

Ann gentle pushed Roman. "Get your mind out of the gutter and let's go," He replied. 

As they walked they were close, but not close just like always. Ann hated that, he just wanted to be able to hold Roman's hand as he walked down the street and let everyone know that he was wanted, that someone wanted him, even though he sometimes doubted if that was true.

They hopped onto the stage and Roman explained, "Ok, so where doing the big emotional scene Jake and Maria break up,"

Ann nodded, "Gotcha." he turned to the page and began, "We need to talk,"

"About what? We're happy. There's nothing to talk about," Roman replied, furrowing his eyebrows.

Ann took a deep breath. "You know that's not true. We need to move forward," he said.

Roman looked confused."Where's forward? We're fine where we are," he replied earnestly.

Ann shook his read and told Roman, "No, we aren't, or at least I'm not," in a quiet and defeated tone.

"What do you want then? Marriage? Kids? The American Dream? Those are lies. Why can't you be happy here?" Roman asked in a bitter tone.

That made Ann mad. "I want a promise for tomorrow and not just today! I can't be happy here because I don't know how long here will last!" he practically yelled.

Roman couldn't understand. "I won't promise forever," he replied.

"I don't want forever! Why can't you understand I need more than now, but less than forever. I just want to know you'll be here tomorrow, or the next week, or 2 months for now," Ann said raking his hand through his hair.

"Why can't you trust me?" Roman asked sounding like he couldn't take much more of this.

Ann yelled, "Because you're out every night and if I want you this much I can't be the only one!" His heartbreaking.

Roman was done. "So what if you're not they only one? You're the one I want!" He yelled, his voice breaking, almost as if he was pleading for Ann to stay.

Ann whispered, "For how long?"

"I don't know," Roman answered in a small defeated voice.

"That's what I feared. I can't do this anymore. I need more," Ann paused taking a breath. He had gotten to caught up in it and now tears were threatening to fall out of his eyes.

"That was amazing!" A man dressed in a blue shirt with a gray cardigan around his shoulders said while loudly clapping.

A man in a black shirt and a blue necktie nodded in agreement and commented, "That was some of your best acting, Roman,"

Roman smiled and said, "Thanks! Let me introduce you to my roommate Ann. Ann, the really excited one is Patton he does makeup and dress and the nerd in a tie is Logan he's the stage manager," gesturing to each man respectively.

"Nice to meet you," Ann politely responded, ducking his head.

"Are those piercings real?" Patton asked and when Ann nodded he said, "SO COOL!!! Can I take a closer look? Jake, the main character is punk, but you should already know that cause Roman is playing that part!"

"Umm....sure. I have more piercings at home, so some of the whole's are empty, and the septum is fake cause I was testing how it looks," Ann mumbled. He didn't, Roman hadn't told him.

Patton's smiled grew even larger if that was possible as he asked, "Where do you get them? Wait" he pulled out a pen, and wrote some numbers on Ann's arm before continuing, "Give me a call when you're free and we can go there together!"

Ann stared at the floor. "Uh....ok....I guess," he responded. 

"Practice is starting soon. Are you staying?" Logan asked.

Ann shook his head as he answered, "No," before grabbing his stuff and leaving. 

As he walked out the door Patton called out, "Seeya later!"

When he got home he put Patton's number on his phone. He's not sure why he did, it wasn't like he actually was planning on meeting the oddly happy man, but life doesn't always follow plans, so on Saturday Ann was calling Patton.

"Hey, it's Ann. I was wondering if you're free today?" he asked, trying to ignore how nervous he was. He wished he had texted him instead.

"Heck yeah! Give me a few minutes and I'll be there. You live with Roman right?" Patton asked.

Ann answered, "Yeah, umm... I should warn you I'm getting my septum actually pierced at the same place, so if that uh... grosses you out you should maybe leave earlier?"

Ann could hear the smile in Patton's voice when he replied, "Really? No, that's great research to see how they're done. It'll help with costume design!"

"Ok, seeya when you get here then," Ann said before hanging up. He took a deep breath and began putting in his piercings, feeling braver and braver with each one he put in like they were armor against the world. 

"Hey! Are those all your piercings?" Patton asked when Ann finished locking up the dorm. Ann nodded and Patton said, "That's so cool! Did they hurt?"

Ann smiled, surprised at how genuinely excited Patton seemed and replied, "Not really, you get used to it," and just like that the mood conversation shifted from awkward and forced to easy going as if they had been friends for years.

When they got to the piercing parlor Patton began to wander around taking in everything around him, and Ann couldn't help but smile at how awestruck he looked. "Ann! Who's this your boyfriend?" a voice asked.

Ann turned and answered, "No, he's the costume director for the play Roman's in. He came to look at the piercings while I get pierced," 

"Hey, I'm Patton!" he said as he shook the man's hand.

"I'm Jules, fake piercings are over there, and if Ann's ok with it, you can watch me pierce his septum," the man said as he lead Ann to a back room.

When they got there Ann sat down in the chair and Jules told him, "Ok, so here's what's gonna happen, I'm gonna put a clamp in your noise and then run a needle through it. Once that's done, I'm gonna put in a started piercing to keep the holes open. Sound good?" Ann nodded and Jules did exactly what he said, as Morality watched in interest, giggling to himself at the cute faces Ann was making.

An hour later they were leaving, Patton with several ideas for costume design and Ann with a sore nose, when Patton saw a circle of food trucks asked, "Hey, since it's lunch time do you wanna grab a quick bite from one of the nearby food trucks?"

Ann paused, Roman should be coming home at any moment, and Ann didn't want to worry him, but lunch with Patton sounded so tempting, and anyway Roman rarely came home when he was so supposed to, so Ann answered, "Sure, how does Mario's Cart sound? " when he saw that it was one of the stopped trucks.

"Amazing! I love their food!" Patton replied as they walked towards them.

About halfway through lunch, Ann got a text from Roman saying, "Where r u?"

He quickly responded, "At lunch with Patton be back later,"

A few minutes later Roman sent him, "Aww I wanted to take u out today,"

Ann didn't know what to say, it was odd that Roman wanted to take him out, so he ended up saying nothing, which was not a good idea because when he got home Roman said, "There you are. I was so worried when you left me on read. I thought you were mad at me or even worse, hurt,"

Ann smiled and replied, "Sorry, I was distracted, won't happen again," before pressing a gentle pressing a kiss to his forehead and asking, "So what did you do today?"

Roman paused before saying, "I hung out with Logan," He got up and said, "I'm gonna take a nap. Also, I have plans tonight, so don't wait up," before walking into their shared bedroom.

Ann sighed before going onto his phone. He really did love Roman, but sometimes it felt like they were friends with benefits and not boyfriends.

As the weeks went by Ann began to become more and more disenchanted with his and Roman's relationship and falling more and more for Patton even though he knew he shouldn't, that what he and Roman had was probably the best he was going to get. "Who would fall for this mess? Certainly not Patton, I've already scared him away," he thought as he remembered the time he had a breakdown in front of Patton.

As he thought about it, he remembered that Patton had helped him through it, which lead to him remembering other things like how sweet Patton was and how he wasn't embarrassed or afraid to be seen being affectionate to Ann like Roman was. He made up his mind. He was going to break up with Roman and hopefully start dating Patton. 

He went to the theater, he knew he should of giving Roman some warning that he was coming, but he was afraid that is he did he would back out. He wished he had given Roman some warning because then he wouldn't have seen what he did, but he didn't so he saw it.

Roman and Logan kissing. 

He opened the door and saw them kissing. It hurt, he didn't know why, he had come here to break up with Roman, but still seeing him kiss Logan hurt. When they broke apart he heard Logan say, "God, I love you, how amazingly creative you are and just how you can anything you set your mind to. You're everything I never knew I needed,"

If that wasn't bad enough Roman replied, "You're everything I could ever ask for. I promise I'll stay as long as you want me to. Anything you want it's yours,"

"I just want you," was Logan's reply and Ann had had enough.

"Hey, sorry to intrude, but I need to talk to Roman for a second," He said, and Ann was a better actor than he expected because it seemed like Logan suspected nothing.

Once they had got outside Roman said, "Ann I'm sorry I just-" Ann cut him off by putting his hand up.

"I get it, we weren't good, but you could have broken up with me before going to him,"

"I didn't want to hurt you,"

"And you thought cheating was a better idea?" a pause Roman clearly didn't have and answer, so Ann answered for him, "It wasn't. I'm moving out as soon as possible," before walking away and letting the tears fall as he texted Patton, "Hey can we meet up? I have some things I need to tell you,"

The immediate response was, "Of course, meet me at my place," Ann practically ran there.

When he got there Patton was waiting and he practically launched himself into Patton's arms. "What's wrong Ann?" Patton asked as he gently rubbed Ann's back.

Ann took a deep breath so he could be understood through his tears and said, "Me and Roman were dating and he cheated on me with Logan. I don't even know why it hurts, I'm falling in love with someone else,"

Patton paused before replying, "You trusted him and he broke your trust. Hopefully, whoever you're falling, for now, won't break it,"

Ann gathered all his courage and whispered, "Will you?" before burying his head into Patton's chest.

Patton paused, taking a moment to think of what Ann meant. He came to the only possible conclusion, but he didn't, no couldn't believe it, so he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Will you break my trust cause I'm falling for you and I'm terrified," Ann mumbled into Patton's chest.

Patton somehow heard him and replied, "Of course not. I love you too much to ever think of hurting," Ann looked up, teary eyed and without a word he kissed Paton.

When they broke apart Patton smiled and said, "If you need a place to stay for a while or a long term place to live I have room at my place,"

Ann couldn't contain his smile and replied, "That sounds wonderful,"


End file.
